Indeed. Speech is useful. ASL is also useful. If it is possible to learn both, then I think that is great. We just need to get rid of the stigmas against people who are not able to speak or understand speech...
I personally am fine with not being able to speak English, since I can't understand it, I can't learn to speak it very well. I can say a few small words, but to me they are 'mechanical sounds' that I incidentally learned to make, (the proper mouth position and how much air to push through, how it feels in my throat and mouth, etc.) They probably sound nothing like 'normal' speech, but I know they are 'passable' because most of the time they work.... the only problem I have with it would be problems that other people create.
